THarrison01
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How accurate and easy to read is the compass?
Suunto D6I NOVO
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Chicken SCUBA
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THarrison01,
I'm surprised no one has put an opinion here. I don't have a D6i Novo but I've had and used several of the D-series computers and as far as I've seen there is no significant change for the Novo so here is my two cents.
If your using it to set an initial heading so you know generally which way to head back to a boat or the shore then it's fine. Plus it is nice to know that you'll always have a compass. But if your trying to navigate to or from something, get a real compass.
The first issue is that you can't leave it on because no other dive information is displayed. So you can't look ahead then glance down briefly to check your heading. It's even worse if you have something in your other hand like a light.
The next issue is that it is not visually intuitive. When you first turn it on it will swing wild for a few seconds so don't even look for two seconds. But after settling in it still takes effort to read it. You will get use to it after a significant time (several dives) but it will never be as quick to read as a real compass.
Another thing you can't do with it, is be lazy with squaring your arm. When you track a heading for a long way you will find yourself only verifying that the arrow is pointing the way it was the last six times... You don't always need to square your arm and get the precise number. Since you only see a distorted portion of the compass circle and no arrow, you definitely can't do that.
Last as far as accuracy goes, I've found that they are accurate when flat but all the ones I've used shift about 3 degrees when you tilt them back 45. So I would say yes there accurate but don't trust in the tilt compensation.
Hope that helps.
I'm surprised no one has put an opinion here. I don't have a D6i Novo but I've had and used several of the D-series computers and as far as I've seen there is no significant change for the Novo so here is my two cents.
If your using it to set an initial heading so you know generally which way to head back to a boat or the shore then it's fine. Plus it is nice to know that you'll always have a compass. But if your trying to navigate to or from something, get a real compass.
The first issue is that you can't leave it on because no other dive information is displayed. So you can't look ahead then glance down briefly to check your heading. It's even worse if you have something in your other hand like a light.
The next issue is that it is not visually intuitive. When you first turn it on it will swing wild for a few seconds so don't even look for two seconds. But after settling in it still takes effort to read it. You will get use to it after a significant time (several dives) but it will never be as quick to read as a real compass.
Another thing you can't do with it, is be lazy with squaring your arm. When you track a heading for a long way you will find yourself only verifying that the arrow is pointing the way it was the last six times... You don't always need to square your arm and get the precise number. Since you only see a distorted portion of the compass circle and no arrow, you definitely can't do that.
Last as far as accuracy goes, I've found that they are accurate when flat but all the ones I've used shift about 3 degrees when you tilt them back 45. So I would say yes there accurate but don't trust in the tilt compensation.
Hope that helps.
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